Proposition Joe: The Art of the Deal

“Charlie Stollers just sold dope. No profile, no street rep. Just buy for a dollar, sell for two.”—“Proposition” Joe Stewart

Apart from state Sen. Clay “she-iiiiiiit” Davis, “Proposition” Joe Stewart is the only character on The Wire with something resembling a catchphrase: “I got a proposition for you.” Prop Joe, as played by Robert F. Chew, is friendly as can be when trying to coax Stringer Bell or Marlo Stanfield to do his bidding; but to viewers with an omniscient view of David Simon’s Baltimore, the look in the fat man’s eye constantly reminds us that while the West Side boys play the game from the gut, Joe is always thinking at least five moves ahead.

Joe made his first appearance on The Wire in a cheap suit that made him look more like a civil servant than a crimelord, coaching the East Side’s best in an annual basketball showdown against a West Side team fielded by Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale. Both teams had ringers on the court—Avon was fielding a junior college prospect while Joe had recruited a pro baller from an Italian team—and the Barksdale gang seemed to have a shot at breaking their losing streak. But after persuading Avon to raise the stakes on their bet, Prop Joe called a second ringer off the bench, an unassuming short guy with dazzling fake-out skills that gave the East Side its third consecutive victory in the grudge match.

Joe’s Br’er Rabbit tactics gave way to a more complex brand of strategy in season two after Avon Barksdale’s imprisonment left Stringer in charge of the towers. While Joe and Stringer both prefer to avoid violence in order to stay off police radar, the big guy is in many ways the anti-String. While Bell pours his money into real estate development and dreams of pursuing political power, Joe is content to use a dingy appliance store as his headquarters. Stringer’s quest for legitimacy gets him fleeced by the sleazy Clay Davis, while Joe’s belief in crime as an honorable profession allows him to grow rich doing business with international gangsters like the Greek.

In season two, Joe persuades String to cut a deal behind Avon’s back by telling the story of a West Side player from the ’60s who made a fortune and retired because of his success at remaining anonymous and lulling the police into complacency. (“Want to know what kills more police than bullets and liquor?” Joe asks String. “Boredom. They just can’t handle that shit.”) As much as Joe would like to emulate Charlie Stollers, it’s not an option; he needs to deal with the lightning rods like the Barksdales and Stanfield to secure the territory without which he can’t get his product on the streets, and many in his raucous family—most notably his nephew Cheese—have been seduced by the flashy side of the gangsta life. “I got motherfucking nephews and in-laws fucking all my shit up all the time, and it ain’t like I can pop a cap in their ass and not hear about it Thanksgiving time,” he rants to his Russian suppliers. (In all fairness, however, Cheese’s lack of discretion helps Joe discover that the cops are stepping up their wiretap operations in season three.)

Joe is a good 10 years older than the rest of the street figures we’ve met on The Wire, and though he’s unquestionably a survivor, he’s might be the last of his kind. The “co-op” approach to the drug trade that he persuades Stringer and his peers to adopt is eminently practical. “For a cold-ass crew of gangsters, y’all carried it out like Republicans and shit,” Joe says approvingly. But it has little appeal to a generation of players who see slinging rock as a means of fulfilling power fantasies rather than as a business. In a less violent culture, the co-op model could be a success, but only in a situation where de facto, off-the-books decriminalization ala “Bunny” Colvin’s Hamsterdam was prevalent enough to make turf wars a nonissue. If full-blown legalization was to occur, entrepreneurs at Joe’s level would surely be swept away as soon as the Wal-Marts and Phillip Morrises figured out how get a piece of the action.

Joe sees himself as a businessman first, and he does take his actual business seriously, repairing and reselling toasters for puny sums of money Avon wouldn’t bend down to pick up. But he’s all criminal; he may avoid violence personally, but his business model depends on manipulating others into spilling blood to serve his interests. The use to which Joe puts his fierce intelligence brings to mind a line from the titular leader’s narration in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X: “Cats that hung together trying to find a little security, to find an answer, found nothing. Cats that might have probed space or cured cancer—Hell, West Indian Archie might have been a mathematical genius—all victims of the American social order.” It’s a bit of a stretch to call Joe a potential Rhodes scholar thwarted by the system (if anyone on the series deserves that description, it’s D’Angelo Barksdale), but his brains could certainly serve better causes. And the close calls he’s experienced over three seasons prove that if he has a weakness, it’s that he’s not quite as smart as he thinks he is.

Like Bubbles, Joe is based on an actual person of the same name, and the real Proposition Joe’s preference for negotiation over violence could not keep him from getting gunned down in a Baltimore nightclub in 1984. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean the fictional Joe will meet the same fate: Although many storylines are based on cases journalist-turned-screenwriter David Simon reported (and which cop-turned-screenwriter Ed Burns investigated), Simon has been very clear about the lack of one-to-one plot parallels between the series and the historical record. “Some of these events actually occurred, and a few others were rumored to have occurred,” Simon writes in his introduction to the companion book The Wire: Truth Be Told. “But many of the events did not occur, and perhaps the only distinction worth making is that all of them could have happened [emphasis added].” Joe may still get backed into a corner, but the big guy seems smart enough to talk his way out and get back to business as usual.

Andrew Johnston is a TV columnist for Time Out New York. The above is part of Wire Week at The House, with a new article each day leading up to the HBO drama’s fourth season premiere on Sunday, Sept. 10. For more, see “On The Wire” in the sidebar at right.

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Bodie shot first and Poot delivered the final shot.Posted by Anonymous on 2006-09-09 12:25:00

I'm pretty sure that Poot did all the shooting; Bodie (as did Cutty in season 3) froze up when faced with the prospect of taking a life.Posted by Dan Jardine on 2006-09-08 15:39:00

I think it was Poot, but Bodie was there with a gun, and he may have also fired a shot. Bodie was in charge of carrying out the hit, on cold-ass order from Stringer Bell.Posted by kevbo nobo on 2006-09-08 14:21:00

Well, non-season 4 watchers remember that Cheese (Method Man) was not the one that Daniels' unit wanted to get promoted by Prop Joe, and everyone was shocked when he started talking about shooting his "dog" on the phone, so if they've turned him into some kind of blabbermouth idiot in season 4, I might be disappointed.

Also, it's been a long time since I watched the first season. Why do I remember that it was his bestest buddy Poot, and not Bodie, who shot Wallace?Posted by Josh on 2006-09-08 05:56:00

Lester is The Wire's Morgan Freeman; the closest thing to God a mere mortal can be.

[QUOTE SPOILER FROM EP. 1 of SEASON 4]:

"See that bow-legged motherfucker? I did that."

----Bunk.Posted by Dan Jardine on 2006-09-08 02:17:00

I have to give a shout-out to my boy Peter Clarke, aka Clarke Peters, Lester Freamon on The Wire. Englewood, NJ. Pete's a few years older than I. Me and his younger brothers were tight coming up. Still are.

Pete left this country for England in the early seventies, for what work could an Afro-American actor look forward to here at that time? Soon, every black based musical that was produced in London, saw Pete with a role in it. He's a very capable song & dance man.

Since The Wire he's found work in the occasional stateside movie- Freedomland and K-Pax are two. He was also in Outland, opposite Sean Connery. He and Connery had that climactic fight near the end. Now you know he wasn't gonna put down James Bond, you could see that coming!

I'm very very happy for Pete. I'll see him later this evening, after the premiere of The Wire, in Chelsea. I'll tell him about The House Next Door.

Yo, Pete. Holla!!Posted by KJ on 2006-09-08 00:36:00

Yeah, you can tell that he's not a natural in front of the camera--he's a little wooden, though not distractingly so. Producer Robert Colesberry, on the other hand, was terrific as Ray Cole before he died in 2004. His unfortunate death did provide inspiration for one of the series best episodes, when the criminally underappreciated Delaney Williams (Sgt. Landsman) gave Cole's eulogy in a crowded Irish bar.Posted by Dan Jardine on 2006-09-07 19:51:00

Not sure if you guys know, but the cop who is Bunny Colvin's 2nd in command at the Western District (with that heavy, heavy Baltimore accent) is the real Landsman.Posted by Anonymous on 2006-09-07 18:46:00

Bodie would be a good choice. It's interesting to see how far he's come since walking out of that detention center, working for D'angelo, and shooting Wallace--events that I still think about, three years later, whenever Bodie appears onscreen, even if no one in the show ever mentions them. However, I would still be interested in some profiles of the cops, who I find to be even more fascinating than the criminals--major characters, like McNulty and Daniels, or minor characters, like Rawls and Jay Landsman. This has been an awesome week on the blog. Thanks.Posted by Joel on 2006-09-07 03:22:00

Daniel and Dan: There might be a Bodie piece before Monday, if all goes well.Posted by Matt Zoller Seitz on 2006-09-07 02:37:00

Bodie's character has grown so much in complexity and intelligence over the four seasons. He's stuck out on the corner all by himself as season four starts, a Promethean image that will merit further discussion once this season has passed.Posted by Dan Jardine on 2006-09-07 02:26:00

This is a fantastic service you guys are performing this week...

The thing that's interesting about Prop Joe is that he's more protean than any of the other characters on the show. If the theme of Season Three was people trying to become something different from what their circumstances want them to be, then Prop Joe is the one who actually ends up being able to make the transition, perhaps because he recogizes his limitations. Stringer tries to gain legitimate power through legitimate means and comes to realize that even the legitimate leaders are just gangsters. Prop Joe, through his ties to other outcast outlaws has a steady base without ever reaching. He just *is*.

[Semi-spoiler:]

This gives away *virtually* nothing about Season Four to say that I love the episode where he fixes Omar's clock. It's so true to the character that amidst all of the drama, he'd still keep up his front and fix the darned clock.

[Spoiler over.]

Are you guys getting to Bodie Broadus next? That's a character that I barely noticed in season one, slowly began to like over the next two seasons and was absolutely blown away by in season three...

Keep up the good work...

Dan

http://fienprint.blogspot.comPosted by Daniel on 2006-09-07 01:41:00

You happy now, bitch?Posted by Anonymous on 2006-09-07 01:33:00

Ay caramba!Posted by Matt Zoller Seitz on 2006-09-07 01:29:00

So McNutty is like The Wire's Bart Simpson, or Urkel.Posted by Adam on 2006-09-07 01:22:00

I can think of at least one other catch phrase. McNulty's "What the fuck did I do." Simon said on one of the season 3 commentaries that he's said it something like 15 times.Posted by Anonymous on 2006-09-07 01:07:00

I forget where I read it, but an article said that Chew is the acting mentor helping the kids in season 4 shape their performances.Posted by Edward Copeland on 2006-09-06 22:09:00

Cheese is Prop Joe's nephew. If there was any doubt, it is allayed in s4.Posted by Dan Jardine on 2006-09-06 20:53:00

Nothing beats Prop Joe using the term "cadaverous motherfucker."Posted by Steven on 2006-09-06 19:10:00

I believe there's an S3 scene where, talking about the cops blowing the wire after they bring in Cheese for the mercy killing of his dog, Joe refers to Cheese as "my sister's boy". Even if something isn't mentioned on the show, I think a reference on the HBO website counts as canon (for example, I don't think The Sopranos has ever fully explained on the show that Christopher is Carmela's nephew and a distant cousin of Tony's rather than Tony's newphew, as he's always called on the show, but if it's on HBO's site, it's gospel in my book). We're not talking about fanfic here, and HBO series aren't like Marvel or DC Comics where a piece of backstory that a writer mentions in interviews (but never uses on panel) can be trumped by the next writer to take over the book the second he puts it in a story.Posted by Andrew Johnston on 2006-09-06 17:56:00

Great articles! I'm a huge fan of The Wire - as will momentarily become pathetically apparent... This is the third article in which I've seen it stated that Cheese is Prop Joe's nephew. I believe it was a minor character by the name of Drac who was established asa Prop Joe's nephew "on his Mama's side". Can you help me resolve this issue? Even the HBO cast profile of Prop Joe states Cheese is his nephew though I do not believe this was ever stated within the show.Posted by Anonymous on 2006-09-06 16:54:00

Err..."HIS own crew" not "HOW own crew."Posted by Dan Jardine on 2006-09-06 16:48:00

Prop Joe is quite the puppet master, and his ability to keep all those strings (how own crew, The Greek, Stringer, Omar and now Marlo) from tangling up with one another IS most impressive. However, you have got to wonder how much longer he can keep it up; the way he got messed up in the Stringer Bell/Omar plotline in season 3 suggests playing both ends against the middle could come back to bite him on the ass.

Props [heh] to Chew, who totally humanizes his character; tinkering away on his mechanical reclamation projects, peering out from behind those reading glasses, with his Mr. Rogers sweaters and never a raised voice, Joe is a deceptively charming figure who you can't help but like.Posted by Dan Jardine on 2006-09-06 16:41:00

Poor sad Poot. He's the Happy Loman of this crew, isn't he? Not tragic, just unlucky. I think that one of the cops should be next, just to give these profiles some balance. Maybe a portrat of TV's greatest platonic couple, Herc and Carver? Or maybe Rawls, whose unexplained appearance in a gay bar last season needs to be followed up in season four.Posted by Joel on 2006-09-06 16:31:00

""I got motherfucking nephews and in-laws fucking all my shit up all the time, and it ain't like I can pop a cap in their ass and not hear about it Thanksgiving time,â€ he rants to his Russian suppliers."

Every time I hear that line, I have to laugh. I feel Prop Joe's pain, even if none of my relatives have assumed the gangsta life.Posted by Anonymous on 2006-09-06 15:16:00

I've loved your pieces this week, looking beyond the obvious characters and focusing on perhaps the most interesting ones. Well done, and thanks. Get here sunday!Posted by kevbo nobo on 2006-09-06 11:44:00

I dunno, I would say Omar pulls out his "In-deed" more often than Joe or Clay revert to their respective idioms.

Otherwise, nice, I can't say I would have put money on Prop Joe being the next of the rack.